ROYAL AUTHORITY IN FRANCE 179 PROGRESS OF PATRIOTISM IN FRANCE The Birth of Patriotism in France.—The sentiment which we call patriotism had been unknown among the inhabitants of Europe during the first centuries of the Middle Ages. The bourgeoisie loved their town, the peasants their village, the knights their lord; the inhabitants of a country were attached to the family of their king, but no one could have any patriotism, for the idea of a patrie or fatherland did not exist, that is, the idea of a great country to which one may be attached, no matter what or whom the men may be who govern it. Therefore they had no scruples in passing over from the service of the King of France to that of the Emperor or of the King of England. The national sentiment appeared in France for the first time during the Hundred Years' War. It seemed as if it were born of the hatred which the people of France felt for the English invaders. This antipathy made the French feel as if they were one people, and as if they ought to unite against the common enemy. Already in 1356, when the north of France was being ravaged by bands in the pay of the King of England, two peasants of the burgh of Longueil, in the neigh- borhood of Senlis, Grand Ferre and Guillaume 1'Aloue, had fought against the English soldiers established in a neighboring chateau and had killed several of them. When the King of France was obliged, by the treaty of Bretigny (1360), to cede all the country south of the Loire to the King of England, the inhabitants of La Rochelle declared that they wanted to remain